False stories claim Ireland prepping for Muslim immigration

DUBLIN: An Irish government plan to address population growth isn’t an outline for “nation-destruction” that will bring in one million immigrants from Muslim countries, as claimed by several false stories circulating online.
The plan to address growth doesn’t specify countries where immigrants would come from, nor their religions.
Several websites tie all projected increases in the Ireland 2040 plan to immigrants — “likely Muslims” — from Afghanistan, Africa, the Middle East and Pakistan — and claim the prime minister, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, is an “ethnic Indian.” The prime minister is the son of a Hindu doctor from India and an Irish nurse.
The sites said Varadkar was talking about the migration of more than a million people when he said, “It’s our big vision for how we want to reshape Ireland.”
The plan describes projected growth of around 1.1 million over 22 years. The leading nationalities of people moving to Ireland in the year before the country’s most recent census in 2016 were returning Irish citizens, followed by people from the United Kingdom and those from Brazil.
The quote attributed to Varadkar is accurate, but he did not say it in speaking of immigration. Varadkar tweeted that remark Feb. 16 about the plan as a whole, just before the government released it.

11 dead, 50 rescued after India building collapse

Many firms use cheap materials and bribe officials to evade regulations, while on-site safety is lax

Police have charged the builder with manslaughter but he remains free

Updated 4 min 15 sec ago

AFP

March 21, 2019 11:23

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NEW DELHI: Eleven people were confirmed dead on Thursday three days after a building under construction in southern India caved in, officials said.
Building collapses are frequent in India. Many firms use cheap materials and bribe officials to evade regulations, while on-site safety is lax.
Around 400 rescuers have been scouring through tons concrete and steel after the latest tragedy in Karnataka state on Tuesday.
Fifty-three people have been rescued from the rubble of the five-story building in Dharwad district, but three more bodies were pulled out on Thursday.
“At least 15 people are possibly still under the debris and it’s unlikely they will survive,” emergency official Srikant, who goes by one name, told AFP.
Heavy earth-movers and rescuers with specialized equipment and sniffer dogs were deployed in the increasingly desperate operation.
The victims were mostly from northern Indian states who came to the region for work.
Police have charged the builder with manslaughter but he remains free, with investigators saying he will be arrested after the rescue operation is over.
Last September, five people were killed after a Delhi apartment block collapsed. Months earlier, a six-story building in the capital had given way, killing nine.
Millions of Indians, who will vote in elections in April and May, live in dilapidated old buildings, many of which are susceptible to collapse during rain.